SC seeks Centre's response to pleas on criminalisation of marital rape

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centres response to the pleas arising out of the Delhi High Courts split verdict on the issue of criminalisation of marital rapeA bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B V Nagarathna issued notice to the Union government and said it will hear the petitions in February 2023The high court had on May 11 delivered a split verdict with one of the judges favouring striking down the exception in the law that grants protection to husbands from being prosecuted for nonconsensual sexual intercourse with their wives and the other refusing to hold it unconstitutionalHowever both the judges had concurred with each other for granting the certificate of leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in the matter as it involves substantial questions of law that require a decision from the apex courtJustice Rajiv Shakdher who headed the division bench of the high court had favoured striking down the marital rape exception and said it would be tragic if a married womans call for justice is not heard even after 162 years since the enactment of the Indian Penal Code IPCAlso Read Supreme Court refuses to entertain PIL for common dress code in educational institutesJustice C Hari Shankar who was part of the high courts division bench had said the exception under the rape law is not unconstitutional and was based on an intelligible differentia having a rational nexus with the object of the exception as well as section 375 rape of the IPC itselfThe petitioners before the high court had challenged the constitutionality of the marital rape exception under section 375 IPC rape on the ground that it discriminated against married women who are sexually assaulted by their husbandsUnder the exception given in section 375 of the IPC sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his wife the wife not being minor is not rapeThe high courts verdict had come on PILs filed by NGOs RIT Foundation All India Democratic Womens Association and a man and woman seeking striking down of the exception granted to husbands under the Indian rape lawThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever